International
disputes: in 1992, the ICJ ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones"
(disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras boundary, but despite
OAS intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full demarcation of
the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite
resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca advocating
Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny
Conejo Island, not identified in the ICJ decision, off Honduras in the
Gulf of Fonseca.

Geography

Situated on the Pacific coast of Central
America, El Salvador has Guatemala to the west and Honduras to the north
and east. It is the smallest of the Central American countries, with an
area equal to that of Massachusetts, and it is the only one without an
Atlantic coastline. Most of the country is on a fertile volcanic plateau
about 2,000 ft (607 m) high.

Government

Republic.

History

The Pipil Indians, descendants of the Aztecs,
likely migrated to the region in the 11th century. In 1525, Pedro de
Alvarado, a lieutenant of Cortés's, conquered El Salvador.

El Salvador, with the other countries of Central
America, declared its independence from Spain on Sept. 15, 1821, and was
part of a federation of Central American states until that union dissolved
in 1838. For decades after its independence, El Salvador experienced
numerous revolutions and wars against other Central American republics.
From 1931 to 1979 El Salvador was ruled by a series of military
dictatorships.

In 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras after
Honduran landowners deported several thousand Salvadorans. The four-day
war became known as the “football war” because it broke out during a
soccer game between the two countries.

El Salvador Suffers During 12-Year Civil War

In the 1970s, discontent with societal
inequalities, a poor economy, and the repressive measures of dictatorship
led to civil war between the government, ruled since 1961 by the
right-wing National Conciliation Party (PCN), and leftist antigovernment
guerrilla units, whose leading group was the Farabundo Martí National
Liberation Front (FMLN). The U.S. intervened on the side of the military
dictatorship, despite its scores of human rights violations. Between 1979
and 1981, about 30,000 people were killed by right-wing death squads
backed by the military. José Napoleón Duarte—a moderate civilian who was
president from 1984 to 1989—offered an alternative to the political
extremes of right and left, but Duarte was unable to end the war. In 1989,
Alfredo Cristiani of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance
(ARENA) was elected. On Jan. 16, 1992, the government signed a peace
treaty with the guerrilla forces, formally ending the 12-year civil war
that had killed 75,000.

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country,
leaving 200 dead and over 30,000 homeless. In Jan. and Feb. 2001, major
earthquakes struck El Salvador, damaging about 20% of the nation's
housing. An even worse disaster befell the country in the summer when a
severe drought destroyed 80% of the country's crops, causing famine in the
countryside.

In 2004, Antonio Saca of ARENA was elected
president. The nation implemented a free-trade agreement (CAFTA) with the
U.S. in March 2006, the first Central American country to do so.

Mauricio Funes, a former journalist and member of the FMLN party, was elected President in March 2009, ending two decades of conservative rule in El Salvador.